Page 53 of Star-Crossed
“I stepped in something slimy.”
“Probably just a little algae,” he said. “There are only certain kinds that can survive at this temperature, but the ones that can are prolific.”
“Kinky,” she said, turning her face up to meet his gaze. She parted her lips as if to say something more, but instead, she anchored her hands on his shoulders and wrapped her legs around his waist.
Instinctively, Cy scooped beneath the curve of her ass, relishing the pleasant ache as blood began to pulse toward his groin. He pulled Lyra against him, holding her close as the warmth gradually seeped into their skin. Above them, the night sky kept its silent watch, the stars the only witness to the understanding passing between them, unspoken but undeniable.
It was so fucking beautiful.
Cy wanted to memorize everything about this moment. To catalog the exact scent of evergreens mingled with the earthy, mineral-infused water suffusing the air around them with a primal energy. Cocooning them from the autumn chill. He wanted to map every single point where her body melded to his.
Because in nature, moments this beautiful rarely lasted. A sunset. A snowstorm. Spring blossoms. Autumn leaves.
There and gone in a blink.
“Whatcha thinking?” Lyra asked.
The companion question to the one she asked when he’d held very still inside her in the greenhouse.
“I was just wondering what the best dates are to see the constellation you’re named after. Why?” Cy asked. “What are you thinking?”
She nuzzled her face into the crook of his neck, raising gooseflesh on his arms as she inhaled deeply. “I was just wondering why you smell so goddamn good.”
This answer, along with the sudden uptick in affection, had Cy pulling back to search her face. “You all right?”
“It’s the kittens,” Lyra lamented. “I’m experiencing some kind of oxytocin-induced sensory overload.”
“I think it’s contagious,” he said, reeling with a sudden surge of affection for her.
“I’m being serious,” she insisted.
“So am I,” he said.
Cy smiled and helped Lyra settle into a rocky shelf beneath the water before seating himself beside her. The water lapped around them at chest level, leaching the tension from Cy’s neck and shoulders.
“This is nice,” she said.
“Mmhmm,” he agreed, letting his eyes fall closed.
He wasn’t sure how long they’d sat there when a slight shift in the light preceded the sensation of her lightly brushing his damp hair away from his forehead.
Cy held very still as her fingertips moved over his brow, his cheekbone, down the line of his jaw.
And everywhere she touched, small sparks lit up the darkness behind his eyelids.
“Lyra—” Cy began, but his words were cut off by the warm press of her lips against his.
“Shh,” Lyra whispered, before kissing him again, more deeply this time. “Come here.”
Cy let himself be guided toward the ledge on the side of the hot spring, leaving him in the water from the knees down.
Naked in the moonlight from the thighs up.
To his great surprise, only mild alarm rose when he realized what she intended to do.
The few memorable encounters he’d had over the last several years were brief, and typically conducted while at least partially clothed. Never in that time had Cy allowed another human close enough to place her hands on his bare knees while she—
He sucked in a sharp breath as Lyra’s warm, wet hand found him, circling the base of his cock before slowly gliding up and down his length with achingly deliberate movements.
